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<center><img src="images/mercury-header.png" alt="Mercury " title="This is the header for the Mercury ."/></center>
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 <img id="left" src="images/mercury1.jpg" alt="Mercury " title="This is Mercury."/>
 
<p> Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system. It is also the fastest of all the planets and the closest to the Sun. Due to its rapid speed and motion, the planet was named after the fastest Roman god, the god of commerce, travel and thievery who was the counterpart of Hermes the Greek messenger god (Nicolson 52). Because of the high temperature as a result of its closeness to the Sun, no one has been able to visit Mercury. The planet has been visited by only two spacecraft namely Mariner 10 and MESSENGER.
Mercury is approximately to be 57,910,000 kilometers away from the Sun, which is less than one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Mercury can be viewed from the Earth and appears to move much faster than any other planet. Mercury's orbit around the Sun is approximately 116 days. On the other hand, viewed from the Sun, Mercury appears, in every two Mercurian years, to only rotate once. 
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    <img id="right"src="images/messenger_falsecolor.jpg " alt="Mercury " title=" Mercury."/> 
  <p>The terrain of the planet has craters: its surface is covered with plains which have a lot of impact craters. Since it is close to the sun, its surface experience huge variations in temperature. In fact, temperatures on the surface can rise up to 430 degrees centigrade, and in the night the temperatures can drop to -170 centigrade due to the absence of atmosphere in the planet to retain heat. It has little or no atmosphere and thus it cannot retain heat; the temperatures at its poles are at all times below -93°C. As opposed to other planets, specifically Earth, Mercury does not experience seasons. It is interesting that Mercury viewed from the Earth appears a very bright star; this is because it is more close to the sun as opposed to Venus which is difficult to see from Earth.
  Mercury is a rocky planet, and sometime is referred to as a terrestrial planet. It solid surface is comparatively similar to that of the earth. Its atmosphere is mainly made up of oxygen, hydrogen, helium, and potassium. It is important to note that the various atoms that are blasted off the surface by the strong solar wind including the micrometeoroid impacts that create plane mercury`s exosphere. There is no evidence of life that has been found on this planet. While standing at the surface of Mercury, the sun would appear more than three times larger than it would look on the Earth`s surface. 
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            <p>Mercury is the smallest, fastest, and closest planet to the sun in the solar system. It takes about 116 days for Mercury to revolve around the sun. This means that by time Earth has completed ONE rotation around the sun Mercury would have almost made three full rotations around the Sun. Thats FAST!</p>
          
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